Ok people, I’m still alive!
This week has been busy as always. The newness of being in
Wednesday I was out on the outskirts of
Wednesday evening we went to the temple again.
Thursday was another day in the community. My job that day was to torture children! Haha, pretty much. I was the person testing hemoglobin, so I had to stick a lot of fingers. A lot of kids cried, but some were surprisingly brave about it. We found quite a few anemic kids. We have iron supplements to help them for a while.
Those kids are so dang cute! They love the interaction with us and always love having pictures taken. Some of them liked us so well that they would come back to try to get their fingers poked again. When we’re done they all crowd around our car and wave goodbye.
One of my favorite days here in
Once we got there we met the man they hired to help us. So with the house I helped build there were about 7 students and one guy who knew what he was doing. We started by digging 9 3 feet-deep holes for the posts that hold up the house. Those were really hard to dig because the ground was packed and wet, which made the dirt stick to the digging tools. My hands were way sore after digging so much! Also happening at the beginning of the process was hammering nails into the semi-pre-assembled walls. The nails were rather dull and the bamboo we had to get through was very, very hard. I was pretty good at it, but I did miss the nail and hit my other hand a few times. This contributed to my soreness.
After all the holes were dug we put the posts in and started nailing the floor onto the platform. Then the walls were passed up to the platform to be attached there. After that it was the door and roof and we were done! It was amazing how simple the process was. It’s more of an assembly than really building a house, but it was still awesome. It only took us about 5 hours from start to finish. Not too bad! The houses sit about 8 feet off the ground, I’m not sure exactly why. Something to do with flooding, bugs, pests, etc. It was a tad wobbly. I thought of Dad when I saw some of the flaws. That is, the house would have taken about twice as long to build if he were running the show. Details, details! Anyway, I loved building and manual labor. I want to build an awesome tree house for my kids someday.
The family who we were building for were there. The woman made us an amazing lunch too! We were a little nervous to eat it, but we haven’t gotten sick yet. They were sweet people and really appreciated our work for them.
It was really hot while we were working. Both sides of my shirt were totally drenched. I think I have a sweating disorder. It’s really gross. The Ecuadorian heat and humidity don’t help either.
Friday night we had another health fair at a stake center. I helped with the CPR group. We had a good turn out and the people really seemed to enjoy it.
Yesterday was awesome! We left our hotel around
It was amazing! There were quite a few of them. They would swim right up next to our boats as they surfaced. Some of them even jumped out of the water. It was an awesome experience for sure.
After lunch we hit the beach! The waves were big at this one, so we spent a lot of time out in the water. I got smashed by a few waves and had more than a little sand on me, but it was worth it! I love the ocean.
One thing I didn’t love though was that the shore (right where the waves end) was covered with little crabs that burrowed in the sand. To get to the water we had to walk over them and it freaked me out! I’m usually not scared of little things like that, but I seriously couldn’t handle walking on them, feeling them under my feet. I thought of Naomi and what her reaction would be, since mine was a little dramatic.
We were totally beat by the end of the day. I had red eyes, salty hair, and a sunburn. Very nice indeed.
Today at church our group of students sang “Joseph Smith’s First Prayer” in Spanish to the tune of “Come Thou Fount”. It turned out quite nice.
Tonight we wandered the malecón to have dinner and ice cream at Fragola’s (pretty much our favorite place).
Well that’s my update! I’m glad you’re all reading this so I don’t have to email ever day. Have a wonderful week!
3 comments:
All I have to say is that I am so jealous of your encounter with the dolphins! And the houses you built look pretty cool. It's amazing that what would be a neat fort to us is a HOME to someone there.
Wow! Sounds like a fun week!! Those waves looked insane!!
Would the song you all sang be a good one for your farewell?
Those crabs would have killed me!!! I remember crying in Hawaii when I had to walk through tons of black ones! I'm excited for you to come home and tell us all about your tails of Ecuador:)
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